The Deep End
by MajorSam
Summary: It all happened at a pool one day...


**The Deep End  
****By: MajorSam**

**Author's Notes: **Inspired by, of course, PeachCheetah, and some thoughts she had at a swimming pool one time. Thanks be to her and her Beta.

Set when the twins are about three years old.

Warning: Heavy clichés. All meant in love and jest and fluff.

* * *

Lucy just managed to hold back a curse as she flew through the door. Getting banned from the community center would be the cherry on top of the very bad sundae that her Sunday had been. There was a reason she didn't do lecture spots on weekends. However tempting they sometimes were, somehow something _always_ went wrong. Someone didn't show up, or they'd forgotten something, or they had to delay for another event… whatever the reason, they always went overtime. She'd made it clear from the moment her children were born that they were, and would always be, her priority. The whole department knew it. The whole University knew it. They had had to beg and plead with her to do this one, extra special seminar. Nothing will go wrong, they promised. It will probably even end early, they said.

Everything had gone wrong.

They had ended very, very late.

And so there she was, running through the doors of the community centre, knowing she'd probably already missed the girls' swim lesson she'd promised she'd be at. But maybe, just maybe, she could catch the end of it, then help them change, and take them home. Wyatt had said he would do it all, but maybe she could beat him to it. She burst through the doors to the viewing area and felt her heart sink. All the regular moms were gone. The class had ended. She'd missed it all. Heavy hearted, she was about to turn around and head to the changeroom to see if they were still there when she caught a few words from a woman by the window.

"Oh my god," she woman exclaimed in a loud whisper. "He looks like a movie star or something."

"I know," another woman replied. "Are you sure he's not an actor?"

"I don't think so. I would _not_ forget _that_."

"Well he should be! I'd watch that face on screen every day if I could."

"And that _body_!"

"Far too pretty to have any brains behind him, but who needs brains when you have an ass like that!"

The women dissolved into fits of giggles as Lucy frowned and slowly started forward. She felt rather out of place, having worn a suit for the seminar, her hair pulled up in a tight, professional bun. The women in the lounge were both in their mid 40's at least but clad in tight fitting yoga gear with perfectly coiffed, long hair, smelling strongly of perfume. As Lucy walked forward, another pair of women joined the first. A yoga class must have just finished, but it seemed after-class events were proving far more exciting than the class itself. The whispered gossip was growing as a few more women trickled in and Lucy found herself cautiously curious.

Until she finally reached the window and saw what they were all cooing about.

There was an astonishingly gorgeous man in the shallow pool, playing with two kids, a bare chest on display that was better suited for magazine cover shoots than community pools.

And that man was Wyatt Logan. Her husband. Playing with her two, perfect daughters. Lucy's breath caught in her throat at the sight.

"I feel you, girl," Lucy heard a woman saying, and a moment later felt a nudge in her side. She startled and looked to the side to see a woman winking at her.

"That is a _piece_ if I ever saw one," the deeply tanned woman sighed, her fake blonde hair bouncing as she brazenly ogled Wyatt. "I mean, I appreciate my husband, he makes things happen, after all." She laughed as she waved a giant diamond ring in Lucy's face. "But he's never home, so in the meantime…" she turned her attention back to Wyatt and waggled her eyebrows. Lucy gave her a weak smile as her insides started to flare with indignation. Too pretty to have a brain? She'd be the first to admit how smoking hot Wyatt was, but he was also the most brave, loyal, hardworking, and strategically brilliant man she'd ever known. Never mind knowing four languages. He was brilliant. But these women probably wouldn't give a damn about any of that, even if Lucy told them that the world they lived in was literally shaped by Wyatt's heroic actions in the past.

For a few moments the ever-growing group of women loudly appreciated the sight before them. Wyatt was now crouching down low, a three-year-old on each shoulder. He was talking to them animatedly, nodding his head a lot as they nodded back. Suddenly, he stood up high, launching both girls from his shoulders. The soundproofing of the glass windows was strong, but Lucy swore she could still hear the excited shrieks of the girls as they flew through the air before splashing into the water. The crowd in the viewing room oohed and aahed at the show of athleticism.

"Do you think it could happen?" the woman's friend asked with hushed enthusiasm. "I mean, I know you're good, Brenda, but that's a special one down there."

"Oh, I realize that, Beverly," she smirked. "The bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward."

Several women tittered at the remark as Lucy frowned. Their interest was funny at first, but it was crossing lines now.

"Besides," Brenda continued. "A man like that, wasting his time in a kiddie pool? Clearly, he's not occupied by more… entertaining, pursuits. I'd be doing him a favour!"

Lucy bristled, angrier at the insinuation that spending time with his own children was a waste than the idea that he wasn't being 'entertained' enough at home. To Lucy, the sight of her husband, laughing and splashing with their kids, was one of the most beautiful and downright sexy things she'd ever witnessed. Wyatt was the best dad a child could possibly have, and Lucy couldn't feel luckier for it. Brenda plowed on, oblivious to Lucy's churning thoughts.

"His wife is probably one of those uptight, boring, career-obsessed women, who won't let her man provide for the family like he's supposed to. She's probably at work right now, ignoring her kids, making the poor man do all the errands."

"Which she or the nanny should."

"Exactly. I mean, who actually takes their kids to swim lessons themselves these days?"

The group, with all their designer clothing and dyed hair, laughed. For a moment Lucy could only gape at them, horrified at everything they had said. The women were shallower than the pool her toddlers were swimming in. Lucy was about to open her mouth and possibly say something she'd regret when the conversation struck up again, focused solely on Wyatt. They analyzed him like a prize animal, top to bottom with ever growing lewdness. Lucy worried steam might be coming out of her ears.

Uptight, boring, career-obsessed woman her ass. She felt a twinge of guilt when she remembered she had, in fact, been late for the class. But it was the first, and last, time, and she'd still showed up. She'd still got there as soon as she could to try spend as much time with her beautiful children as possible and support them in every way she could. She'd show these rich bitches exactly what kind of parent did that. What kind of woman could "hook" Wyatt, as they were now debating. She squared her shoulders and marched out of the room, swiftly making her way to the pool itself. It was just her luck that Wyatt was then wrangling the girls out of the pool, rising like Adonis himself from the waves before wrapping them up in towels. The girls shrieked the instant they saw her, careening forward despite Wyatt's urgent protests to slow down, it's slippery! Lucy caught them in her arms as laughter bubbled out of her, beyond her control as was always the case when she saw unbridled joy on her children's faces. She hugged them and kissed them and pretended she caught all the words in the babbling stream they were shouting at her amidst their towels and arm floaties. As quickly as she could, she hurried them toward the change room promising to be along to help them in a moment. Lucy's favourite lifeguard, a teenage girl named Lauren, was just across the pool and with a nod to her, Lucy knew the girls would be watched over.

Then Lucy turned to Wyatt, the glistening hunk of a man clad in vivid blue swim trunks who was completely oblivious to the hungry eyes that surveyed him, both in the viewing lounge, and of a few people in the pool room. He only had eyes, bright and blue, for her. The uptight, boring professor. His hair was wild and floppy as he rubbed at it with a towel. He then moved the towel to his bare chest and finally Lucy couldn't stand it anymore. Her hand whipped out to stop his movements and he frowned.

"Lucy?"

She gathered the towel in her hand and took it away from him. He waited perplexed, but patient, for her to explain. Instead Lucy gripped the tower harder and half turned backwards towards the viewing room. She could see them all, Brenda, Beverly, the whole crew gaping at them. With a smirk Lucy deliberately raised the towel high. She locked eyes with Brenda, the one who "liked a challenge." For a moment the air crackled with electricity. They might as well have been toe to toe rather than in different rooms.

Lucy dropped the towel to the ground.

Then she turned around, grabbed Wyatt's face, and planted a kiss on him that would have put any romance novel to shame. Wyatt made a sound that he later would vehemently deny was a "squeak", completely taken aback. He quickly adapted, however, as he was so good at doing. He made a second, deeper sound, and wrapped his arms around her. Lucy didn't give a damn that her fancy suit was getting soaked with chlorinated public pool water. All that mattered was her husband's feel and smell and taste. For a moment all the lights and noise of the community pool faded away. Along with it went the stress and rushing and guilt of the late seminar. She was there, now, with her husband and…

Oh, the kids.

Before she could even begin the process of pulling away, there was a tap on her shoulder, and a loud cough. The trance was broken. She tore her mouth away from Wyatt's with a loud pop, turning sheepishly to see Lauren the lifeguard. The teenager was blushing pink, but also fighting to hold back a grin.

"Umm," the girl started.

"I know," Lucy exhaled. "Sorry."

Lauren just nodded, still blushing, and walked away.

Lucy looked back at Wyatt and had to contain a laugh of her own. Her poor husband looked like he'd been drugged, his eyes half lidded and hazy, mouth open in a dopey smile as he stared at her.

"Wow," he managed to breathe.

Lucy smirked and reached up to run her thumb over his bottom lip. "Mmmhmm," she drawled. Then she leaned in and whispered into his ear the plans she had for him that night. His jaw nearly hit the ground. The smirk never left her face as she trailed her hand all the way down his chest, plucking at the waistband of his swim trunks, making him shiver, before fitting her hand into his.

She turned back towards the viewing room one last time. The ladies were nearly frantic with chatter, but Brenda was stock still, staring red-faced and open-mouthed at them. Lucy wouldn't consider herself a petty, or what people would call "catty" person. She never indulged in the low brow competitiveness of some circles of women. But just this once she couldn't help herself. She raised her free hand and waved pleasantly at Brenda. Then, squeezing Wyatt's, turned her back to the room, and led him towards their wonderful, waiting children.

The End.

* * *

Oh Brenda, *shakes head*. Be careful who you mess with.  
Oh Wyatt, you gorgeous, clueless hunk.  
Oh Lucy, you, well, everything...

Please let me know if you agree or disagree.


End file.
